I think I have made some headway investigating my earlier query, after
looking at some .idlg files and referring to James Hassell's very helpful
earlier message dated Thursday, 19 August 2004, stored in the Statalist
archives at

This message gives a list of built-in LISTs for use in user-written Stata
dialogs (in the -contents()- and -values()- options of COMBOBOX
statements). My current theory is that these built-in LISTs have been
revised, and that each of these built-in LISTs, has been replaced by two
new built-in LISTs, of which the first LIST is to be used as the
-contents()- option and the second LIST is to be used as the -values()-
option. In particular, if the first item of the first list is "Default",
then the first item of the second list will be "" (an empty string).

Is my theory correct? And, if so, what are the names of the new built-in
LISTs? And how stable are they?

Best wishes (and thanks in advance)

Roger

At 10:52 30/03/2005, I wrote:

Hello All (especially StataCorp)

I have a query re -graph twoway- and dialog boxes under the latest version
of Stata 8.2 for Windows (executable 10 Jan 2005, ado-files 24 Feb 2005).
Have there been any unpublicised major overhauls of the Stata graphics
dialog box system since November 2004?

I ask because my package -eclplot- (downloadable from SSC and distributed
22 November 2004) suddenly seems no longer to work in dialog mode, as
invoked by

db eclplot

(although it still works perfectly well in command mode, at least for me).
At least part of the reason seems to be that my dialog box program
-eclplot.dlg- usually creates a command with a lot of options given as
"Default", and -graph twoway- now seems to have a problem with that. For
instance, I have a standard program -eclgen1.do- for generating a dataset
with one observation per confidence interval for testing -eclplot--, and
it invokes the SSC packages -somersd-, -parmest- and -sencode-, and reads
as follows:

If I execute -eclgen1.do-, and then invoke -db eclplot- and submit a basic
command, the output is as follows:

**** BEGINNING OF OUTPUT - CUT HERE
. eclplot estimate min95 max95 predictor, horizontal eplottype(scatter)
rplottype(rcap) estopts( mcolor(Default) mfcolor(Default)
mlpattern(Default) mlwidth(Def
> ault) mlcolor(Default) mlabposition(Default) mlabangle(Default)
mlabsize(Default) mlabcolor(Default) connect(Default) sort
cmissing(Default) clpattern(Default
> ) clwidth(Default) clcolor(Default) ) ciopts( blpattern(Default)
blwidth(Default) blcolor(Default) ) scheme(rbn1mono)
(note: named style Default not found in class color, default attributes used
(note: named style Default not found in class linepattern, default
attributes used
(note: named style Default not found in class linewidth, default
attributes used
(note: linewidth not found in scheme, default attributes used)
(note: named style Default not found in class color, default attributes used
(note: named style Default not found in class color, default attributes used
(note: named style Default not found in class color, default attributes used
(note: named style Default not found in class color, default attributes used
(note: named style Default not found in class linepattern, default
attributes used
(note: named style Default not found in class linewidth, default
attributes used
(note: linewidth not found in scheme, default attributes used)
(note: named style Default not found in class color, default attributes used
(note: named style Default not found in class linewidth, default
attributes used
(note: linewidth not found in scheme, default attributes used)
(note: named style Default not found in class linepattern, default
attributes used
(note: named style Default not found in class clockdir, default
attributes used
(note: named style Default not found in class gsize, default attributes used
(note: named style Default not found in class color, default attributes used
(note: named style Default not found in class anglestyle, default
attributes used
(note: named style Default not found in class connectstyle, default
attributes used
(note: named style Default not found in class yesno, default attributes used
(note: yesno not found in scheme, default attributes used)
not allowed
r(101);
**** END OF OUTPUT - CUT HERE

It appears that there is now a problem with the "Default" string passed as
an option. THe dialog box -eclplot.dlg- definitely worked with the current
version of Stata as of 22 November 2004.

I have not found anything publicised about a major overhaul of the
graphics dialog boxes in -whelp whatsnew-. However, there seem to be two
new .class files twowaygraph_g.class and twoway_yxview_parse.class in the
Updates, both dated 15 December 2004, and I am wondering whether they have
anything to do with the sudden malfunctioning of -eclplot.dlg-.

Best wishes (and thanks in advance)

Roger

--
Roger Newson
Lecturer in Medical Statistics
Department of Public Health Sciences
Division of Asthma, Allergy and Lung Biology
King's College London